Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Writing with Rocket!

Friends~We are so lucky at my school to have the most AMAZING librarian. Not only does she support us teachers but she also totally inspires our students. I know this on both ends! Not only does she introduce my 2nd graders to great books but my own kiddos Lily and Ian are constantly talking about books she shares with them.

This post was inspired by her and my little guy Ian.

Once upon a time Ian came home and told me all about this book called Rocket Learns to Read by Tad Hills. He heard it in the library.

Then our librarian told me that Ian had reminded her that when Tad's new book came in she would get it to read to them. That book is called Rocket Writes a Story! He talked about it for days after hearing it and I was super excited to see it at our school book fair and I bought it for Ian even though I had to pay hardcover price!

You can watch a reading of Rocket Writes a Story below!

Forgive me if I look tired...it is conference week:)

Now I bought this book and Ian was all smiles but I have to admit that we did not get to reading it until days later. There I was all snuggled up with Ian in bed and reading all about Rocket and after a few minutes I was in LOVE! First of all he is super cute but best of all this book totally walks you through generating inspirations to write about. Creating word trees and making friends. Ian told me after we were done that I could lay the book on the floor by his bed and I asked him if I could borrow it for my class. He was happy to share and today I shared this story with my class and we made word trees!

We had so much fun! My kiddos folded green paper in half and then tore the edges to look like a tree. We added a trunk and then added Yellow Bird's words to the front. My students then added words that inspire them to write on the front of the tree. They wrote a story using the words on the tree inside. They turned out so cute!

We also went down to the library and hung them outside as a surprise for our librarian. I can't wait to hear what she thinks tomorrow!

I put together a mini unit for the book Rocket Writes a Story and you can download a few pages as freebies. There are even directions for making the Word Trees and the templates I used included.